Last week’s episode of “Project Runway” was a storm of emotion from Ken who lost his temper on Helen for, really, no good reason. Helen, of course, wound up winning the challenge (her third time at the top) and scored the last immunity. “I’m watching my back,” Ken says. Wise words, as this episode gives him and his ego a run for their money.

This challenge opens on a lighter note: Heidi gives the designers the morning off and treats them to a Southern-style brunch. Of course, the whole thing is very suspicious. “Something’s brewing,” Bradon says. When the group arrives at the restaurant, they’re met with a decadent display of coffee and croissants and right away, speculation swells that they’ll be designing for a garden party. Right on, gang.

“I hope that this experience has been lovely, civilized, relaxed, because those qualities describe the woman you’re going to be designing for,” Tim announces, waltzing in. “She is a modern, Southern woman.” More importantly, she’s the target customer of Belk, one of the show’s chief sponsors. The winning look will be sold at Belk and Belk.com.

Ken, who is from Alabama, is by far the most familiar with the Belk customer. In the van on the way to Mood, the other designers playfully hit him up for tips. Of course, he doesn’t tell them anything — it’s a competition, he smirks. Sound familiar? Those who saw last week’s episode can join us in a collective eye-roll.

A few minutes into the studio time, it becomes clear the Dom and Ken, both of whom have families from the south, think the rest of the designers are taking a totally stereotypical approach to this challenge. “I don’t see anybody walking around in a plaid dress,” Ken says, “it’s not the prairie.” Uh oh. Such small-mindedness could get the designers in hot water on the runway, but when Tim comes around for his critique, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with the loud fabrics.

He does, however, have a problem with Alexandria’s oddly bohemian look. “It’s hideous,” he blurts out. “I’m sorry, it’s just hideous.” Tim warns her that if she doesn’t sharpen her editing eye, she could go home for this. Thankfully, she takes his advice.

The guest judges this week are TV-show host Stacy Kiebler and John Thomas, a Belk executive. The runway show itself goes off without a hitch, but we have one serious question: Is it just us, or does Kate’s model look pregnant?

Off the bat, there are a few surprises. Alexandria is safe, which emphasizes how important it is to listen to Tim. Bradon and Alexander’s country dresses, which Ken was convinced the judges would hate, get extraordinarily high praise. And despite Ken and Dom’s overwhelming confidence this round (bordering on smugness, if you ask us), they wind up on the bottom. The reason? Too humdrum! Zac tells Ken that his dress looks like a “purple nightgown.” And the other judges agree: Heidi thinks it’s unflattering, Stacy thinks it’s boring and Mr. Thomas thinks it’s unoriginal.

Similarly, Dom’s dress is criticized for not being fashion-forward enough. Nina, in particular, expected more of Dom this challenge. “I’m so surprised you went so safe, this was your challenge!” she tells Dom. What’s the lesson to be learned here, folks? To remember that this is a design competition. Creativity trump practicality almost every time.

Even though Heidi agrees that Kate’s dress and confesses that the model looks pregnant (considering that she’s 5”11” and leggy, this is saying something), the other judges are too in love with the gorgeous orange and pink print to make a big deal out of it, and move right along.

Predictably, Jeremy’s ensemble gets torn up. “Nothing could have saved this jacket,” Zac tells him. Mr. Thomas agrees: “Nothing about the dress or jacket look modern to me.” We’re a little puzzled about why Jeremy is still in this challenge, to be honest. It’s been several rounds of awful designs since his stunning gown based on a handwritten letter. It’s time to stop leaning on that and give us something else to remember him by.

During the judges’ deliberations, Heidi decides it would be fun to see what the bottom three contestants would do “if they really understood the challenge and who they were designing for.” After crowning Bradon the winner of this challenge (and excusing Alexander and Kate), she throws the losing three the curveball. For the first time in Project Runway history, they are sent back to the workroom for one hour to improve their look with the help of one fellow designer of their choice.

The pairings are smart: Dom picks Helen, Jeremy picks Alexander and Ken picks Kate. Ken decides to rework his current design rather than start over because the judges liked the dark purple (we have doubts about this decision, let it be known). Dom decides to try executing her original print-focused design. Jeremy and Alexander decide to start from scratch (thank goodness) and design something young, clean and simple.

To put it plainly, the judges are totally thrilled with the redesigns. Dom’s second dress is so impressive, Mr. Thomas has decided to order it for Belk department stores. Just like that, she is bumped up from the bottom three to the top two, and understandably moved to tears.

That means it boils down to Jeremy and Ken. Heidi thinks Jeremy should go home because his dress is too simple, but Nina thinks Ken has a bad attitude. Ultimately, they boot off Jeremy and we can’t say we’re surprised. Not only have his designs been unimpressive and old-fashioned, but Ken is too much of a drama king. For the sake of ratings, the producers would be crazy to eliminate him before they absolutely have to. He’ll stay another week, but his time is limited. We’re predicting he might be next.

What do you think? Are you cynical like us, or do you think there might be some hidden talent under those sassy frames?